Monday, January 29, 2007

7 Year Itch

I was digging through my files here at CN the other day and came across a bunch of interesting junk, both old and new, that cover the last 7 years of production. Here are a few oldies and... newies.


As it says above, these were some early pencil drawings that Cliff Voorhees did for Billy's and Mandy's houses when we switched from "Grim and Evil" to "The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy" and "Evil Con Carne".

Our opening title was done over the course of three days. Because that's how much people in TV animation care about quality. Thankfully, I had the help of editor Bobby Gibis and Flash mastermind Spencer Laudiero to help me through. The images above are marker comps and paintings by art director Rae McCarson.

When we were doing the title, I knew I wanted a "dirty" look, but the film grain wiped out most of the detail. Here you can actually read the headstone gags...
This is part of the rough storyboard I did for the titles.
And here are some development drawings from Billy and Mandy's "final" episode. Make what you will of the quotes. The drawings above were done by Phil Rynda, Serapio Calm, and myself. The BG was painted by Don Watson.
Without giving much away, we learn a lot more about Grim's past. And we get to see some other characters from the show in a younger form. Above is Lord Pain. When we first saw him, he was obsessed with Grim. After that, he decided Mandy was his true Master. And who would Lord Pain be into before either of them?

18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Its some beutiful stuff, I must admit. The artwork for the title sequence is pretty cool. I really like those sketches of the houses.

If you don't mind me asking, could you please post some more storyboards of episodes?

12:29 PM  
Blogger Crimson Tigress said...

Awesomeness!!!
Those look amazing!

Random question, which world is the Billy and Mandy/ Kids Next Door crossover gonna be in?

2:09 PM  
Blogger Todd Kauffman said...

in my opinion one of the best openings in cartoon history - i refer to it often.

2:20 PM  
Blogger Mukpuddy said...

Great post dude!! I too, love the opening titles!! It's such a funny show, we just don't see enough of it down in NZ!

4:08 PM  
Blogger Jim Mortensen said...

Gorgeous work.

9:47 AM  
Blogger Niko Anesti said...

I love seeing old work. I think the backgrounds of the houses had better angles back then, but the actual quality of the backgrounds has improved so much over the course of the show. I remember being glad when the show split in two. Not because I didn't like Evil Con Carne, just the fact that both shows were easier to keep track of.

1:13 PM  
Blogger KTM said...

Last episode...
I hope Billy and Mandy keeps going on for a while! I love this show, and I've always wanted to work on it.
I'm getting a degree in animation just special for you guys!
Or I will be, once I'm finally out of my Junior and Senior years...

1:57 PM  
Blogger BigPoo said...

Eh, it's aight. It ain't no Big Poo's stuff but it's aight.

8:14 PM  
Blogger Ryan said...

I love the show...quick question...is original production art from the show offered for sale anywhere? I'd love to hang a few pieces on my wall.

12:08 PM  
Blogger ZSL said...

So the main title was done is flash? :O!

10:31 PM  
Blogger Maxwell Atoms said...

I'll see what I can do about getting more boards up. My home computer died a few weeks ago and I thought I'd lost everything... but now it looks like it's gonna be mostly okay. Mostly.

The main title was done partially in Flash, partially traditionally, and partially through the magic of the Avid. There are even live-action elements. A few friends and I spent a day dropping black ink on white posterboard and filming it with a camcorder. Those are the "splats".

I think CartoonNetwork.com has some "original drawings" up for sale, but I'm pretty sure they're all drawn overseas and who knows if they're authentic? You'll be lucky to get an Itchy or Scratchy arm on a cel.

And last time I checked... Big Poo's blog led to some sort of creepy porn site.

4:20 PM  
Blogger Ian Jones-Quartey said...

Hot stuff! I enjoy the jokey headstones. I'd like too see some more boards also, or at least some more design drawings- a lot of the stuff you've posted so far is hilarious.

9:30 AM  
Blogger chia said...

wow, I had no idea Robot Jones was Jewish. Now I feel bad for sending all those christmas cards.

1:36 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Love the Kurt Cobain shirt lord Pain is wearing

9:25 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I thought that the movie was AWESOME!!!!

I was very excited to see Fred FredBurger back again. I'm a huge fan of his!!!

I was also very saddened to hear that the series would be cancelled in spring of this year. I was honestly hoping that there would be more episodes, especially involving Fred.

I love the series, let's hope that it's a grand finale.

10:46 AM  
Blogger Will said...

Those look awesome but im so bummed that its getting cancelled. It was like the only show that is actually enjoyable to watch on cartoon network. I was already dissapointed enough when Evil Con carne was cancelled.

4:53 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

In the episode Skarred for life, when Billy phone General Skarred while making corn bread and said ultimate power, Skarred became evil and start to laugh what is that background music?

9:01 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love the little "Kurt" on his shirt there. That's so cool!

7:38 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home